


and now they were two

by HuiLian



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, RotT Spoilers, if you've read ROTT you know where this is going, like the entire fic is just rott spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28197813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: Perplexingly, it was Gen who broke the eerie silence inside the tent. He walked to the table at the center and placed a watch, one that Temenus recognized as one of Stenides’s work, on it. It was beautiful, and was Gen’s wedding gift from Sten. The green details, lovingly crafted against the gold background, showed the genius of Stenides’s mind upon forming patterns.The watch, already precious before, was doubly so now, because there would never be anything quite like it ever again.
Relationships: Eugenides & Stenides (Queen's Thief), Eugenides & Temenus (Queen's Thief), Stenides & Temenus (Queen's Thief)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	and now they were two

**Author's Note:**

> MORE fics about Gen with his forbidden Eddisian family? it's more likely than you think

Temenus was sitting next to Xenophon when Eugenides came into the tent the officers of Eddis’s army shared to discuss their strategies. At first, he thought it was the high king who entered, and so Temenus kept in his work, marking the map where his division would be in the next bout of fighting. 

But Eugenides caught his eye, and then their father’s, and said, “Stenides is dead. There was an explosion in the foundry.”

It was not the high king who came, after all. 

Temenus stared at Eugenides, searching for any sign of the pranks his little brother so liked to play. But surely, not even Gen would play at something like this. 

Not even Gen would say that Sten was dead when he was not. 

Stenides was dead. He was not supposed to be dead. He was supposed to be safe, back in the mountains of Eddis, away from this war they were waging. Out of the three of them, Temenus had always thought that it would be Sten who would live the longest. Temenus was the soldier, had known that it was his duty and obligation to become a soldier since he was a child. He had looked at his older sisters, all of them with their lives in front of them, and had looked at his younger brothers; Stenides with his clever hands and a mind that find numbers instead of weak spots and Eugenides with his cleverer hands and a disposition that marked him their mother’s child more than any of them; and decided that it was him who would follow their father’s footsteps.

He was the soldier, and Gen was the Thief, and Stenides was supposed to be the one who would live until he was old and grey, with his children and grandchildren cluttered around his seat, asking for stories. 

Gods in the heavens above, what about the children? 

Xenophon’s voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “Hector,” the old general said, addressing Temenus’s father, “I believe we are done for now. There is much to think about.” He stood, and Temenus moved to stand with him, because even though his brother is dead, even though the world has just tilted on its axis, Xenophon is still his general. But Xenophon simply pushed him back to his seat, and left, taking the rest of the generals and officers of Eddis’s army with him.

And then it was just the three of them, silently looking at each other.

There were no rites to perform. There may never _be_ any rites to perform. The body was in the depths of the mountains of Eddis, and it was very likely that the three of them would join Stenides in Hephestia’s land rather than return to Eddis. It was war, after all. Any of them could die tomorrow. 

The three of them were on the battlefield, where they could have died at any second, and it was Stenides, safe up in Eddis, who died first. 

Perplexingly, it was Gen who broke the eerie silence inside the tent. He walked to the table at the center and placed a watch, one that Temenus recognized as one of Stenides’s work, on it. It was _beautiful_ , and was Gen’s wedding gift from Sten. The green details, lovingly crafted against the gold background, showed the genius of Stenides’s mind upon forming patterns. 

The watch, already precious before, was doubly so now, because there would never be anything quite like it ever again. 

Gen grabbed Temenus’s hand, and then, after a short pause, offered his arm to Father. They stood surrounding the watch in silence, listening to it ticking the day away. 

Temenus’s own watch felt heavy in his pocket, and he knew then, what to do. He took the watch from his pocket and laid it gently, very, very gently, next to Gen’s. After a few ticks from the watches on the table, synchronized, because Stenides was, no, had been, an expert watchmaker, Father took his own watch and laid it on the table. 

Three watches, and all they had left of Stenides. 

He didn’t know how many ticks had gone before Gen started to recite the prayer for the dead. It was not the rites that Stenides should have had, not even close, but this was what they could do, so far away from Eddis. Temenus joined in in the second repetition, and Father in the third. After even that was finished, they listened to the ticks of the watches again, beating steadily even when the man who made them had died. 

Temenus didn’t know how long they stood there, listening to the watches, but eventually, Gen let go of his hand. His brother lifted the watch from the table and put it gently inside his pocket, and, with a final look towards the two of them, left.

Temenus stayed for a moment more in the tent with his father, and then, they too, left. It was not because of a lack of grief. 

Gen was the high king now, and Father was the Minister of War for Eddis. They have duties to attend to, and Temenus, an officer in Eddis’s army, also have duties to attend to. 

He was the soldier, and there was war to be fought tomorrow. 

***

Temenus woke up with the feeling of being watched. He should be alarmed, should take his sword from his sheath and aim it at the intruder, but instead, he just scooted over to make space in his cot and lifted his blankets. 

Only Gen could go through a tent full of battle-weary Eddissian soldiers and not wake a single one of them. Well, not wake a single one of them but the one he sought to wake. 

His little brother, because it’s his little brother on the foot of his bed now, not the Annux over Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis, silently took his place on Temenus’s cot, and, after claiming his territory, curled up into a ball that somehow managed to not touch Temenus at all, even in the small cot they’re currently in. 

Temenus sighed. He knew this too. 

He laid the blanket on top of his little brother, and, slowly, coaxed Gen out of the ball he was in. It was painstakingly slow. Temenus was out of practice on coaxing little brothers, and besides, it hadn’t been him who coaxed Gen out of his tears back when they were children. 

It had been Stenides, but Stenides was no longer here. 

Finally, he got Gen’s head laying on his shoulders and Gen’s arm around his own, noticing that the deadly hook Gen always wore was not there. The sheets, where Gen’s face had been before, were wet. Temenus chose not to comment on that. 

“I miss him too,” he whispered into the dark. 

“Why couldn’t he have stayed making watches?” came the choked up response. 

“You know why, Gen.”

Temenus felt his clothes getting wetter, but he hardly cared. He brushed his hand on Gen’s back, knowing that it was not his touch that Gen wanted. 

“He should have stayed making watches,” Gen sobbed. 

Temenus had no reply to that, so that was the last words said among them for the rest of the night. He kept his hand on Gen’s back, offering solace but at the same time seeking one for himself. His brother had died. 

Stenides was dead. 

Eventually, they must have fallen asleep, because Temenus woke the next morning alone in his cot, with his eyes and the sheets dry and an echo of two brothers in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my niche now. this is who i am in this fandom.
> 
> come talk with me on tumblr (huilian.tumblr.com)!


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